This invention relates in general to the delivery and dispensing of cementitious materials, such as concrete, at remote locations which may not be accessible by conventional concrete delivery methods.
Concrete is typically delivered to a work site by a concrete truck which has been loaded with material at a remotely located mixing facility. Concrete trucks are relatively large and are thereby inherently limited in their ability to deliver mixed material to its final destination where it is dispensed into forms constructed of wood or other material or earthen forms, such as trenches or holes. Even if the final destination is accessible, the delivery system of a cement truck may not be efficient in terms of lost time and wasted material.
Heretofore, whenever it was desired to deliver concrete to an area that was inaccessible by a cement delivery truck, several methods may have been employed. One method was to load the bucket of a front end loader with concrete for delivery to the form. However, even after the loader arrived at the form the material still had to be dispensed which typically required additional labor to shovel or otherwise offload the material from the bucket of the loader into the form. This was particularly true when the pre-existing form was a fencepost hole which could not be filled from the bucket of a front end loader without incurring an unacceptable amount of waste. Even if the destination were accessible by a front end loader, the amount of material carried in its bucket was limited by a number of variables including the terrain over which the loader had to travel to get to its final destination, the weight of the loader, the amount of offloading labor available, the amount of finishing labor available, etc.
Another method of delivering material to a form or fencepost hole was via hand carried buckets filled with mixed material. This method of delivery was required when delivery was needed in areas having steep hills or swampy terrain. While the use of hand carried buckets has provided for the accurate placement of materials into forms and fencepost holes, it is both time consuming and labor intensive.
One major disadvantage of previous methods of concrete delivery is the inefficient use of labor resources. Since the amount of time available to deliver and finish concrete material is determined by the set up time of the material, the laborer placing the material in a form may not be the same party. This is particularly true, for example, in filling fencepost holes where there is a multitude of forms which must be filled over an extended distance. When the delivery of materials is slow, the finishing of those materials by others must necessarily wait. The inefficient use of finishing labor represents a wasted resource which must be accounted for in the overall cost of performing the task. Also, since the installation of the woven fence fabric proceeds faster than the current method of setting fenceposts, fence stretching crews may very well catch up with the setting crew and have to wait idly by until additional posts have been set.
In addition to wasting human resources, prior methods of concrete delivery to remote locations are generally not cost effective since less than complete loads of concrete must be ordered. Ordering less than minimum material loads often incurs a delivery charge by the concrete supplier which also must be accounted for in the overall cost of the project.
An improved method of delivering concrete or other cementitious materials to remote locations would provide a more effective means for delivering and dispensing of concrete within the setup time of the material, would accommodate delivery over variable terrain, and would significantly improve upon the use of human and material resources.